Whimsical singer-songwriters would not feature heavily among the artists I regularly listen to, and given that Jeffrey Lewis emerged from the same NYC anti-folk scene that bequeathed the likes of The Moldy Peaches (whose tweeness I found somewhat off-putting), I did not hold out much hope for Mr. Lewis’ sixth album, A Turn In The Dream Songs. What a pleasant surprise, then, to discover that the lyrical flair of the singer – also a comic book artist who has lectured on Alan Moore’s Watchmen – proves so compelling.
Lewis has a Morrissey-esque flair for mixing observations on loneliness and alienation with biting humour. One of the funniest tracks on the album is ‘Cult Boyfriend’, which pokes fun at hipster lifestyles in a manner reminiscent of ‘Losing My Edge’: “I’m a cult boyfriend, I’m not a mainstream show/I’m lonely but I’m worshipped by the lady in the know”. Even better is ‘When You’re By Yourself’, a lovely slice of baroque pop with a genuinely hilarious lyric about the etiquette of dining alone in restaurants, which plays like an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Impressively, Lewis also explores different musical approaches, moving from ballads and folk tunes to more up-tempo, rocky numbers. It’s anti-folk, but not as we know it.